Using data as the key to fighting financial crime

Tim's love for data started while studying Business Economics. "I always loved working with numbers and logic. In the work I do now, I substantiate my ideas with data in a way that people without knowledge of data can understand."

Get the most value out of data

“At Rabobank, you work with an enormous amount of data. Customer data, process data, data from bank applications. But data in itself doesn't say much. As BI Translator, I look at how we get the most value out of that data. I am a sparring partner, and the link between the business and the technology behind data analytics.”

“Data & Analytics has a central position within Rabobank. We create products that we make available to the entire bank. That means colleagues in other departments can create their own dashboards with which they retrieve insights.”

Fighting financial crime with data

“Within the Data & Analytics area itself, the teams specialize within a particular topic or field. My team, for example, focuses entirely on customer research within FEC (Financial Economic Crime). How and why you do customer research changes regularly. For example, when laws and regulations change that we as a bank have to verify when onboarding new customers, or there are changes in sanctions countries that customers are allowed to trade with.”

"By working with large amounts of data, we are able to discover trends and correlations in the issues we research. Take the turnaround times for customer research for instance. With cross-sections of the data, we can identify where the business can improve or needs additional capacity. The larger the data set, the more reliable our predictions are."

Complex and challenging work

"In a short time, FEC has grown into a field that involves thousands of people and for which data is essential. It helps us make solid, informed decisions that really make an impact—not just within Rabobank, but also in society. By providing insight within the bank, I am making a contribution to fighting financial crime, and that's what ultimately benefits society."

"I deal with different stakeholders who all have their own interests. That makes my work very challenging. What I really like about my role is that I can actually change things and use data to prove why something should be done a certain way. Dealing with stakeholders, translating their issues, puzzling over priorities, that's what gives me energy. Especially when I can surprise people with new insights."

"FEC is very complex, the field is constantly changing, and it’s in the news a lot. Money laundering, fraudulent transactions, sanctions, these are the things you’re dealing with and have to keep up with. The bank works tirelessly to set up its gatekeeper role on the financial system as well as possible”. It's a place where you can really bring about change with good ideas and creativity."

Growth and ambition

"In such a fast-moving environment, it is important to keep developing yourself. Rabobank actively helps you with this. Employees receive a personal development budget to spend on a wide range of training and education courses. I recently took a leadership training course in which I learned skills such as team leading, strategic thinking, and setting priorities."

"I decided to do that course because I will soon be transitioning to the role of product owner within Data & Analytics. The fact that the bank asked me to take that step within my first year makes me happy. Forming a clear vision together with the stakeholders for our data products, thinking about what we want to achieve, creating roadmaps, and working with the team to achieve goals, that's what I love doing. In this work I can express all my creativity."